Teaching: Group Projects

I've had occasion as you know to teach a few times at Brandeis University. The courses were in Web Development, Mobile Development and Game Development. A major component was a Product Incubator where students worked in teams to develop a product. The organizational and logistical questions as well as the dynamics around team work were significant and challenging.

In my mind the overall benefit of team student projects are:

students must show mastery of the material to do well

it is more fun and rewarding for the students

team work is a fundamental aspect of whatever they will do in the future

the teachers are around to help steer and guide each team as appropriate

So far so good. Now, Students reported that working on the projects in team was definitely rewarding and effective. But certain students also found them frustrating in these ways:

how students were divided up into teams

variety of levels of knowledge or skill

variety in commitment or dedication

grading is not perceived as fair because everyone on the team gets the same one